Hello everyone, well I posted a question about this coin awhile back and now I can't find it on this site sorry for posting again. It was suggested that I take better pictures to find out how would I know if this coin is real or fake? So having said this I will post better pictures of this coin in hopes that whoever asked to see better pictures could tell me if this is real or fake. Couple of questions I forgot to ask is...would someone be able to tell me about the letter C in front of this coin means? Also would anyone know about the edge of the rim what these markings are? Would appreciate any info, kind of a neat coin, just my opinion. Thank you!!
Those are cool chopmarks. Provided the chopmarks aren't fake, wouldn't that mean that this coin is genuine? Since the goal of chopmarks was often to verify authenticity?
I saw this coin posted on another forum in a plastic case. Now that you have removed it from the case it is possible to do some further analysis. There are easy first steps to take with a coin that is supposed to be 90% silver. Is is magnetic and what is the weight in grams to two decimal places? The alternating circle and rectangle edge design was impressed on genuine Spanish colonial issues by a parallel edging mill that also upset the edge prior to being struck. The parallel edging mill will leave small sections of overlap of the design, typically one to three segments, in two places on exactly opposite sides of the coin. Many forgers are either not aware of this or expect that nobody will look too closely at the edge design, however some forgeries are made with parallel edging devices so this is not a perfect test. The surface marks are called chops and, if genuine, were placed there by Asian assayers to indicate that they passed their examinations for acceptance as silver of the appropriate measure. These coins were and continue to be faked. You should expect that a forger can easily fake a chop so these are in no way a guarantee of authenticity.
Amazing info Thank you! It's not magnetic and the weight is 25.8 grams. Curious about the letter C next to Ferdinand bust, would this identify where this coin was made? Thanks again!!
If your scale is accurate, then the coin is not genuine. There is a mintmark on the coin -- M with small o above -- for the Mexico City mint, however it could not have been issued from the mint with so much missing weight. I suppose a genuine coin could lose that much weight by being drilled and refilled but it's much more likely to be a fake. China imported 8 reales throughout the 19th century for their silver content so it might be a forgery intended for this bullion trade. Chinese assayers were wary enough to weigh coins and Bob Gurney speculates that they knew how to conduct specific gravity tests so it's unlikely that such a low weight coin could pass. Maybe it circulated elsewhere or maybe it's a recent forgery to fool collectors.
